Bradie Tennell's Spotify collection of '80s tunes helped see her through her first U.S. title and the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 last season, but she's switching things up here in Detroit.
"I've recently been listening to a lot of Imagine Dragons, and I'll flip back and forth between Imagine Dragons and Bastille and my 80s stuff, kind of change it a little bit," she said after practice at the
2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships today.
Alysa Liu's taste runs to Billie Eilish, even though she thinks some of the teenaged alt-pop artist's songs are a bit sad.
"I don't focus on the lyrics so much," she said. "The songs are really catchy."
Tennell uses music to rev herself up; Liu thinks of it as a welcome distraction. Neither of the skaters seem to need it to calm their nerves.
"I'm not really feeling the pressure," Tennell said. "I'm feeling pretty good. I want to go out there and skate like I train. That's kind of my goal."
The prospect of becoming the first lady to win back-to-back U.S. titles since
Ashley Wagner in 2013 isn't weighing on her mind.
"Nationals does feel different this year, but in a good way," Tennell, who turns 21 on Jan. 31, said. "I don't really feel added pressure."
"She doesn't look at it like, 'Oh, I'm defending my title,'" Denise Myers, the skater's longtime coach, said. "She sees it as another performance."
Myers, who trains Tennell in a suburb of Chicago, endorses her student's laid-back approach.Â
"I think everything is going the way we hoped it would," Myers said. "Bradie is practicing well. She's healthy, fit and ready to go. Can't really ask for much more."
Their confidence may be partially rooted in Tennell's
winning performances last month at Golden Spin of Zagreb, an ISU Challenger Series event in Croatia. Tennell performed a personal-best short program, hitting a solid triple Lutz-triple toe jump combination. She did two triple-triples, including the even more valuable triple Lutz-triple loop combination, in her free skate. She's keeping the same game plan in Detroit.
"I'm sticking with Lutz-toe for the short, that's just the way I've been practicing it," Tennell said. "I'm happy with my (technical) content."
Tighter judging guidelines mean many skaters, including Tennell, have lost points to under rotation calls this season. Myers acknowledges it's been a focus in practice.
"She's been skating well, training well," the coach said. "We continue to work on technique. It's about striving to be better this week, than you were last week."
Amping up Tennell's performance quality is the other part of the equation. Together, Tennell and Myers reviewed Tennell's performances throughout the season -- which included a win at Skate Canada's Autumn Classic International and a bronze medal at Internationaux de France, a Grand Prix event – and took notes.
"I'm focusing on the little things, really fine-tuning everything, just kind of picking apart little things I wasn't sure about," Tennell said.
"Artistry-wise, component-wise, we'll go back and watch video and study what made the program good, what could make it better," Myers said. "Every competition, every event, every performance, you learn something."
Is history in the making for Liu?
Liu, too, isn't putting any added pressure on herself. Reminded she was the youngest competitor in the event, the 13-year-old just shrugged.
"I don't really think about it, but it's pretty cool," she said. "I don't mind the (media) talk about me. I try not to pay too much attention to it."
A giggle or two later, she added, "I really have nothing to lose."
Under ISU rules, the California skater was too young to compete on the Junior Grand Prix this season; she is also too young to be considered for the 2019 Junior World Figure Skating Championships. If she wins here in Detroit, she will be the youngest ever U.S. ladies champion.
"She's not focusing on that at all," Laura Lipetsky, who coaches Liu in the Bay Area, said. "She's coming here to enjoy the experience, do what she does on a daily basis and do the best she can."
In practice on Wednesday, the youngster hit several triple Axels, a jump she landed in both her short program and free skate at Pacific Coast Sectionals in late November.
"I do two triple Axels in my free skate and one triple Axel in my short program," Liu said. "It's going pretty good. I'm going to give all three of them a try here."
If she succeeds, she'll make another bit of history as the first lady to land multiple triple Axels at the U.S. Championships. (Tonya Harding landed the jump in her free skate at the 1991 U.S. Championships.
Mirai Nagasu hit a triple Axel in the team event at the PyeongChang last February.)
But jumps don't seem to be the main things on Liu's mind.
"I'm working on my skating skills, my components, my expression," the teen said.
"We're looking for the whole package," Lipetsky said. "Doing the jumps, doing the spins, doing the skating skills and making her a complete skater."
Arutunian's technique could prove Bell's superpower
While Tennell and Liu are preternaturally calm,
Mariah Bell admits to having a few butterflies.
"I've never gone to a competition feeling loose, so I don't believe in that," Bell said. "I've never gone to a competition and thought, 'Oh, I feel great, I'm totally relaxed.' But that
can be kind of your superpower. You can channel your energy to the right moment."
The 22-year-old skater feels more confident at this U.S. Championships than she did last season, when she placed fifth. For that, she credits her coach, Rafael Arutunian.
"I've been with him a little more than two years now and I feel like I'm in that stage where I understand his language (about jump technique) and can apply what he's talking about," she said. "Everything is getting a little more consistent, because I understand what I'm doing."
Bell, 12
th at World Championships the past two seasons, placed third behind Tennell and Russia's Anastasiia Gubanova at Golden Spin. Her preparation for Detroit got a huge boost when
Nathan Chen returned to their rink in Lakeside, California, during an academic break from Yale University.
"Those weeks Nathan was back, it felt fresh and different to head into nationals," Bell said. "He manages his time really well, because he has no other choice. He'll get on the ice and immediately do a program with no jumps, and you're like, 'Oh, maybe I can try that a few times.' I feel like I learn from him all the time."
Shae-Lynn Bourne, who choreographed Bell's free skate to a medley from Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi, visited the rink for a week after Christmas to work with Bell and Chen.
"One thing about Shae, she kind of has a different perspective on everything," Bell said. "For her, it's all about the feeling. Sometimes during training you get in the mindset of doing it every day rather than feeling your way through a program. She brings out that side of me, which is exciting. And it's a breath of air."
